US sets new record for billion-dollar climate disasters in single year

Country has experienced 23 extreme weather events costing $1bn or more already this year, passing previous mark of 22 in 2020

With four months of 2023 still left, the US has set a record for the most natural disasters in a single year that have cost $1bn or more, as fires, floods and ferocious winds were among deadly events experts warn are being turbo-charged by the climate crisis.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced on Monday that there have already been 23 extreme weather events in the US this year that have cost at least $1bn. The current figure surpasses the record of 22 such events set in 2020.

So far, the total cost of disasters in 2023 is more than $57.6bn, according to Noaa.

WheeGeetheCat,
@WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works avatar

good, we wont change our ways until we suffer tremendously

reverendsteveii,

My favorite part about all of this record breaking weather is that the old record is almost always within the last 5 years, and the last 4 or 5 records are always in my lifetime. It’s almost like everything climate scientists predicted publicly and fossil fuel execs talked about privately for the last 50 years or so is coming true exactly as predicted.

octoperson,

No no that’s not the case at all this is just alarmism. In actuality it’s all coming true much faster than they predicted.

reverendsteveii,

alarmism

I love when they say that. Sometimes the reason the smoke alarm is going off is that the house is on fire.

Treczoks,

But wait, there’s more!

PreviouslyAmused,

… so far

JustAManOnAToilet,

Does this factor in inflation at all? If not it’s a completely meaningless metric.

itsdavetho,

What about the other metric stated in the same sentence? Poor take

ryathal, (edited )

It’s not accountingfor inflation, and it’s not a completely useless metric. It’s great at showing the increase of population centers in places that have been historically volatile.

WalrusDragonOnABike,

No surprise 2020 was the previous record with how active that Atlantic tropical storm season was. Guessing 2005 is up there on the list too.

xc2215x,

Not surprising since the July that happened.

treefrog,

I would love to see people and local governments affected by some of these events to bring litigation against the oil and gas industry for covering up the dangers of their products.

As long as we let them privatize the profits while leaving the public with the costs, nothing will change.

MasterBlaster,

As an American, all I can do is hope my peers finally pull their heads out of their collective asses and fucking do something.

Looking around, I sadly do not expect it to happen. People are still saying global warming is a “woke” conspiracy of lies.

Part of our own government is actively trying to destroy the efforts of the Biden administration to get us off fossil fuels, or regulate anything.

Sadly, I think it is too late for us. Gods help us.

Reverendender,
@Reverendender@lemmy.world avatar

Agreed. We might salvage something from the mess, but I think we’re past the point of no return.

netwren,

I mean it’s been how many decades of scientists screaming at us? Here in Florida the coral reefs are bleached, hottest summer yet it feels like, ocean is rising.

I can’t help but think if we had listened to Al Gore.

Reverendender,
@Reverendender@lemmy.world avatar

A lot people did listen to Al Gore. We even elected him president. Then the Supreme “Court” ruined it.

TruTollTroll,
@TruTollTroll@lemmy.world avatar

Wait, how? Forgive my ignorance, I was 11 when bush and an Al Gore went head to head… what happened and how did the court affect this?

SheeEttin,

en.wikipedia.org/…/2000_United_States_presidentia…

A lot of bullshit went down, from confusing ballots, to voter roll purges, to hanging chad, to Roger Stone (yes, that Roger Stone) organizing a “protest” of Republican staffers to disrupt proceedings and cause them to miss a deadline, to ultimately the Supreme Court saying that since Florida did not have a statewide standard for recounts, and to implement one would miss another deadline, they could not perform a recount, giving the electoral votes and the election to Bush.

TruTollTroll,
@TruTollTroll@lemmy.world avatar

Oh, that’s what happened… this is the explanation of the recount plea Gore did and why it was ended? I had a really limited understanding of what happened there, but wow, now that you highlighted what really happened… that is sooo shity… so much more shity then the 'Al Gore wants a recount ’ it sounds like he had a legitimate claims for recount and the court blocked it? Am I understanding correctly?

SheeEttin,

Right. And they started to do recounts, but the Republicans pulled out all the stops to block it at every turn, up to and including a conservative-leaning Supreme Court.

It was just one more step in the post-Nixon Republican political machine.

TruTollTroll,
@TruTollTroll@lemmy.world avatar

Wow!! 😲 this is upsetting to learn…

MasterBlaster,

Yep. Democracy died that day. It has b3en a downward spiral ever since.

Reverendender,
@Reverendender@lemmy.world avatar

Fucking Chad. I hate that guy

PerCarita,
@PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I saw someone starting this thought exercise just yesterday - imagine Al Gore became president, say for two terms. Then the boat swung back into two terms of McCain, followed by Obama. No Iraq war. No Benghazi. Possibly no 2006 Housing Crisis. Maybe Covid would still have happened. But anyway, wouldn’t that have been a much happier timeline?

Back to no Iraq War, maybe Saddam would have gotten toppled over locally. The Arab Spring would still have happened, but then also maybe no ISIS?

bradorsomething,

the housing collapse was pretty inevitable, because so few people saw it coming. definitely no one in government. whichever party had been in power would have worn it around their neck like a dead pelican.

PerCarita,
@PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Didn’t the housing crisis start with bad policies and market deregulations? I’m not sure which government undid which regulations though

DrPop,

In the words of am ex coworker, “I just Believe some years after hour than others,”. The problem is that instead of using logic they go with feelings until it’s convenient for them.

onionbaggage,

Problem is, even if the U$ gets our shit together (which would be great), we’re still fucked because of China, India, Russia etc.

Powerpoint,

Apathy doesn’t work. Something is always better than nothing. Show an effort, develop green tech and then collaborate with other countries.

onionbaggage,

Sorry, Republicans control the House. Maybe next year. 🤷

MasterBlaster,

Not with the way the srate Republicans changed their voting laws and districts. It is going to be depressing

Zikeji,
@Zikeji@programming.dev avatar

You’d think the hottest day record being broken daily for what, a week back to back, would kick our asses into gear. Instead most people barely acknowledged it.

Bakkoda,

Most news outlets are too busy blasting the modern day equivalent of yellow journalism to give a shit.

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